Building an Academic Pipeline: Mentorship and Connectedness for Women of Color

• In Event: A Dialogue on the Status of Junior Women of Color in the Discipline

Abstract

Women of color continue to be under-represented in political science, making up less than 5 percent of all political science faculty. These women who work and mentor others in the discipline often experience isolation, alienation, microaggressions, and stress. Moreover, they must combat institutionalized and covert racism with limited or no ability to observe or “mirror” other WOC navigating these dynamics. Because WOC encounter such challenges, support and mentorship is vital to sustaining their well-being and presence in colleges and universities. Mentorship for WOC in higher education is essential to increasing tenure and promotion rates, recruiting and retaining Native, Latina, Arab, and Black women students, particularly in predominantly white institutions, and succeeding and thriving in academia. Moreover, mentorship and building connectedness also means paying attention to the particular needs of WOC whose identities rest at multiple intersections including child and elder care, disability status, religion, among others. Replication of existing mentorship structures that ignore the positionality of WOC mask the challenges and needs these women often have. This paper discusses the importance of mentorship and connectedness efforts for WOC political scientists, its influence on their work, and downstream impact on the discipline. The paper also pauses to reflect on what mentorship looks like for WOC. What does support look like for this specific group within political science/academia and what avenues and mechanisms do we turn to, to build that mentorship? Moreover, as some of the few POC, much less WOC in many of these higher education institutions, we are turned to disproportionately, to serve as informal and formal mentors for younger students. What practices can we embody to serve in this role? Current mentoring practices are discussed and evaluated, and we conclude by making several recommendations for improvement and ways to better support WOC political scientists.

Authors

• Taneisha Nicole Means, Vassar College

• Jenn M. Jackson, Syracuse University

• Kimberly Fields, University of Virginia

• Melina Juarez, Western Washington University

• Jamil Shatema Scott, Georgetown University

• Nura Sediqe, Princeton University